Peacock attack

I have a peacock who has attacked aggressively several times. He has no fear of humans and will stalk them. I know this sounds crazy but I am at at a loss. I have had many of these birds over the years and I have never seen this kind of behavior. Has anyone every had this problem and if so what is cause and what is solution. He is free to roam now but was in a large enclosure with hens.

This is a problem that often shows up in males that have been raised close to humans but usually there is no stopping this sort of behavior once it's started.

One of our free ranging cocks is a real butthead during the breeding season. We got him after he was already mature, but we think he was imprinted by someone as he has no fear of us and eats out of our hand. Then when breeding season starts my wife carries a stick around with her to ward him off. He will also attack the Gator and the lawnmower, and visitors. It is for this reason I recommend that if you feel like you need to imprint a peafowl make it a hen. And the funny part is the wife is the one that doesn't want him to go away.

Did he ever act this way when he was with the hens? Does he have hens free-ranging with him now?

I have two imprinted peacocks and one imprinted peahen. I haven't seen this behavior yet and I asked some peacock trainers who imprint their peacocks (they have at least 7 peacocks) and train them to do tricks and they haven't seen this behavior before either. I think it is fairly rare for them to get aggressive.

Honestly, I really want to visit someone who has an aggressive peacock. I just want to see what that is like first hand. I have heard that it is like what you said where they will sort of stalk you - like wait for when your back is turned or follow you closely but with a demeanor that makes you know they are up to no good.

Anyways, there was one time that one of my imprinted peacocks was startled and he accidentally hit me. I figured it was an accident, but just to make sure I kicked him to let him know that I didn't like being hit. I didn't hurt him at all of course. I let my males know that I am the boss. When one male is chasing another male, I break up the chase and start chasing the one who was doing the chasing.

I haven't dealt with an aggressive bird but one of the things I would personally do is try to show them that I am not intimidated by them and maybe chase them or kick at them if they tried to jump on me. I would probably wear long sleeves too to keep from getting scratched up.

I have the opposite problem here though... My peacocks think my foot is a peahen and they make the matting call at it and then I had better move out of the way!

He came to me as an 4 year old and I kept him for months enclosed with chicken until he got used to the property. He was fine up until February. I was feeding the birds turned my back and he attacked, it was no a mistake. I got out but now it's worse. I have since put two young pen hens in with him who he is very aggressive with, they are new so not free ranging with him. My enclosure for these birds is huge. He is now stalking me down by the house. The dogs take care of that be is smart enough to see them coming and gets over the fence. I'm worried about my Grandchildren if they play back there, he is not messing around. He stalks like a not so subtle predator, very unsettling. If you were not so far I would be happy to have you see how he does this. I suppose to those who have studies these bird it is very interesting. Me I'm just trying to not have another hole on me or lose an eye.

Karmaloo54 said:

He came to me as an 4 year old and I kept him for months enclosed with chicken until he got used to the property. He was fine up until February. I was feeding the birds turned my back and he attacked, it was no a mistake. I got out but now it's worse. I have since put two young pen hens in with him who he is very aggressive with, they are new so not free ranging with him. My enclosure for these birds is huge. He is now stalking me down by the house. The dogs take care of that be is smart enough to see them coming and gets over the fence. I'm worried about my Grandchildren if they play back there, he is not messing around. He stalks like a not so subtle predator, very unsettling. If you were not so far I would be happy to have you see how he does this. I suppose to those who have studies these bird it is very interesting. Me I'm just trying to not have another hole on me or lose an eye.

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Far in the past I used to have aggressive roosters and they would end up in the pot. Thinking the problem over and seeing that they felt they could dominate me and others I tried something that has always changed any aggression in any roosters since. Saving nice birds from the pot. I have never had a peacock act aggressive toward me or others so can not say it will work but it is worth a try as it does no harm to the bird. Take a white pine or other pine limb in full green needles. Walk toward the bird and smack the pine limb on the ground in a fast beating motion. When the bird starts to run chase after him smacking the ground with the limb and keep him running for a short distance. Do this every day for only a few days and normally they realize that you are the dominate one. Keep in mind there is no need to hit the bird just the ground. Just might keep your bird out of the pot. FC

I've had imprinted peafowl, and peafowl that are older when I tame them and there's no aggression. There are many things that play a role into this. First of all, is it aggression. I've had people tell me how their peacock or rooster would attack, and it turned out it was actually breeding behavior. The bird would jump on the persons back and try to hold on by biting the back of the head and not letting go. Most birds, they show aggression by kicking and then backing off. If they hold on, especially to that back of your head that's breeding behavior. If it is aggression look at the bond you have with them. It needs to be a flock member bond. You respect each other, but you will not tolerate his crap. If he's going to be aggressive to your flock, you boot him out of the flock. Sometimes that doesn't always fix it. Sometimes you just have an aggressive bird, and that's a bird I wouldn't put up with and wouldn't want in my flock. If he's part of your flock, you do what you can to make him feel welcome and safe in your flock. He still needs to respect you though. Here's some pictures of my peacocks I've trained. The White peacock is Ice, I bought him when he was a yearling, started working with him as soon as I bought him. The Indian Blue peacock is Colbolt, I got him when he was a yearling and didn't train him until he was 5 years old.

Karmaloo54 said:

He came to me as an 4 year old and I kept him for months enclosed with chicken until he got used to the property. He was fine up until February. I was feeding the birds turned my back and he attacked, it was no a mistake. I got out but now it's worse. I have since put two young pen hens in with him who he is very aggressive with, they are new so not free ranging with him. My enclosure for these birds is huge. He is now stalking me down by the house. The dogs take care of that be is smart enough to see them coming and gets over the fence. I'm worried about my Grandchildren if they play back there, he is not messing around. He stalks like a not so subtle predator, very unsettling. If you were not so far I would be happy to have you see how he does this. I suppose to those who have studies these bird it is very interesting. Me I'm just trying to not have another hole on me or lose an eye.

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Perhaps the way he was raised where you bought him from has to do with it - or his personality type could just be mean. From what I have read about aggressive peacocks, when breeding season gets closer is when they start getting aggressive again. Also, I kind of think that when you buy an aggressive bird they usually won't show their true aggressive nature until they settle in.

This is definitely not mating behavior though and I would be worried about children being around him since they would be more his height and thus easier to injure / less threatening looking. To protect your eyes you could buy those clear protective glasses.

I wish I was near you. I would come over and chase him personally haha.

I just want to add my own "imprinted peacocks are not usually aggressive" to this. Blu was my first, and there's not an aggressive bones in his body.
This video was taken just yesterday, and my other two boys aren't imprinted but they were raised close with people and also have never shown aggression- I've always been able to walk right up to them no problem. I'm in their pens every single day and they mind their own business. My purple and my opal boys are too sweet to the girls - they do this super gentle bowing behavior where they wall over and all the peas have a soft conversation and the boys will rest the tip of their beaks on the ground and lift the feathers on the backs of their necks for the girls.

If anything I've had way more problems with bossy imprinted/hand tame ladies getting mean XD my girl will 100% fight anything if she thinks I'll let her... she even went charging at 4 big dogs my neighbors were walking by with once! Like what are you going to do you dizzy thing, you're barely 9lbs, there are 4 of them and they were minding their own business 50 yards away! Sheesh

To the OP, I agree with the others - any aggressive male should get a good boot or stick chase until they remember you're at the top of the pecking order. I've never had this problem with peafowl, but it usually only takes an attacking rooster meeting my boot once or twice to figure out they would prefer not to attack me.

I'd also be wary of hatching chicks from him - domestication of animals happened by breeding the naturally nicest animals together until they liked us. There's a better than good chance it goes the other way too, with mean animals producing more mean animals.